Sine waves are the building block – the “atom” if you will – of sound. And frankly, I’m in love with them. Savvy producers know that sine waves are essential for 808 bass, but that's just one possible application. On tracks like Glow Ballz, my collab with Matt Lange, they're the source of its ethereal lead, with a touch of chorusing and reverb.

Here are some tips from a piece I did for Keyboard Magazine (2016) with several examples to get you started.

While some may argue that all synths are fair game for dance music production, it’s clear that many instruments are closely tied to specific genres.

Cases in point:

The 303’s relationship to acid house.

The 808’s influence on trap and hip-hop

The M1 Piano and Organ's role in the sound of classic house

The Alpha Juno’s “Hoover” preset and the 90s rave scene

The JD-8000’s introduction of the supersaw

Of course, it’s obvious that these synths and drum machines have far more range than the niches they’ve found, but it’s still relevant to associate specific synths and groove boxes with certain genres – especially for producers who are pursuing "street cred" in their tracks.

Electronic Musician's October 2017 cover story takes a close look at the current synth and software landscape, with some insights into the products that have been embraced by specific communities.

The Roland D-50 is one of my all-time favorite digital synths, and with the recent release of the new Boutique D-05, the world was re-introduced to Roland’s iconic LA synthesis format. Frankly, the Boutique D-05 is an impressive achievement, as it really does sound identical to the original–and includes all of the vintage sound cards that were available when the D-50 was first released.

For sound designers, the process of LA synthesis is relatively straightforward once you understand the architecture. The general approach is to combine a sampled instrument transient (mallet hit, string pluck, etc) with traditional analog-style tones, then slather the result in chorus and reverb.

To clarify these design techniques, here’s a tutorial on designing LA-style patches in Propellerhead Reason.

Earlier this year (2017) I created a masterclass for Electronic Musician on designing sounds for Xfer Serum. Having developed many of its factory presets – as well as two expansion packs for Xfer – there are quite a few tricks for developing sounds with this extremely deep softsynth.

The feature goes into a lot of detail, so fire up your copy of Serum and read on.